


Black

by hunters_retreat



Series: A Pretty Enough Story [9]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Black has a mind of his own, M/M, Shiro is an idiot, Soulmarks, Soulmates, idiots in space, keith is an idiot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-10-01 13:22:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17244995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hunters_retreat/pseuds/hunters_retreat
Summary: “Oh wow, Black did that?”





	Black

“You’re being an idiot.”

Keith sighed and looked back at Krolia.  “So I’ve been told.”

Pidge shook her head and looked back at his mother and Keith really wished they’d leave him alone for more than two minutes.

“Maybe we should just hit him over the head and lock him up until he agrees to go talk to him?” Pidge offered.

“Stop,” he demanded.  “I know what you want.  I just … I can’t.”

“But why?” Pidge asked.

“Keith, he’s your mate.  I know what it means to be separated from your mate.  I can’t … I can’t imagine what the separations you’ve faced have done to you.  Why keep this rift now?”

“A year!”  Keith yelled.  He shouldn’t, he knew it.  He just couldn’t seem to help it when it came to this.  There was no rational thought when it came to Shiro these days.  They didn’t say anything because they’d heard the rant before.  “He had a year to tell me and he didn’t.  If he wanted me, he’d have said so.”

“Keith,”

“No, Krolia.  I have lived without a mate my whole life.  I don’t need him now.”

“Keith,” Pidge tried.

“I need to check on something.  I’ll catch up with you later.”

It wasn’t entirely a lie.  It wasn’t exactly the truth but he felt the Black Lion calling to him and Keith could use the isolation. 

He ran to the bay where Black was held, working off some of the edge.  When he got there, he rested his hand against Black’s foreleg before the metal beast lowered his head and opened his mouth.

Keith climbed in, not one to ignore the lion’s actions.  Black wasn’t as responsive as Red had sometimes been, but in other ways, Black reacted to his moods more.  He appreciated that most of the time.  Sometimes, when it was too much, he took off with Black and just let the lion go where he wanted.  The Lion was better at figuring out what would calm him than he was.

He didn’t have time to get to the pilot’s seat before Black took off at a run though.

“Black!”

The metal beast made it to the launch deck and slowed only a moment on the deck and as Black jumped into the sky, Keith was knocked into the back wall as something heavy came tumbling at him from where Black had snatched it from the deck.

“Keith!  What are you doing?” he heard from the radio. 

He pushed up from the floor and struggled to get to the pilot’s seat as Black kept them pointed straight up into the sky.  He got there and tried to stop their ascent but Black had him locked out of the controls.

“Lance?” He called to the Blue Paladin.  He was on duty on the bridge of the Atlas. 

“Keith, why did you just take off like that?”

“I didn’t.  Black’s reacting on his own.”

“Was it his idea or yours to steal Shiro too?”

“What?”

He looked back and realized that sitting against the back wall was the aforementioned Captain.  That Shiro had been the heavy object that had knocked him into the wall a few minutes ago.

“Black, what the hell are you doing?”

“Oh wow, Black did that?”

“Yes.  Can you get Allura or Coran and help me figure out how to get Black to let me back into the controls?”

“You know, Buddy, I would love to do that, but I think… yeah.  I can’t do that.  Sorry.  I wouldn’t want to interrupt a Paladin bonding with his lion and all that.”

“Lance!”

“You know you could try calling Pidge, but I really doubt you’ll get a different answer,” Lance said.  “Keith, just … talk to him.  Put us all out of our misery and work out whatever you have to.”

“I am going to kill you whenever you get back.”

“I know.  Which is why I’m going to go hide behind your Mom when you come back.  Have fun.”

The line went dead and Keith closed his eyes.  He took a deep breath, tried to calm himself, and reached out to the Black Lion.  He just needed to get the thing to turn around.  Or let him take control.  But Black wasn’t budging.

When Keith opened his eyes, he knew there was no reasoning with Black.  The only response he’d felt from Black was a sense of urgency towards Shiro. 

Keith looked back at his unwanted passenger and even though Black’s inner gravity had kicked in and Shiro was able to stand, the other man was still on the floor, sitting with his back against the wall.  Keith watched him a minute before he realized what he was seeing.

“Shit, Shiro, are you okay?”

Shiro shook his head slightly and pressed his hand harder to a spot that was bleeding.  “It’s okay.  I just got roughed up on the take off.  I could have done with a little warning.”

Keith realized then that Shiro didn’t know he hadn’t been the one to steal him from the Atlas.  “It was Black.  I didn’t plan this trip.”

Shiro looked down.  “Oh.”

Keith felt like an ass, but at the same time, the anger rose in him again.  “How is your head?” he asked instead. 

He grabbed the first aid kit and found some gauze for Shiro to hold up to it.  It wasn’t deep, just a scratch really, but in a bad place.

“Oh, it’s fine.  I think this body handles concussions better than the last one.  Too many knocks to the head with my original body.”

“Don’t joke about that,” Keith hissed. 

Shiro stilled and looked away.

Keith got up and walked away, too angry to stand next to the other Paladin. 

“Look, Keith, can we talk?”

Keith looked at Shiro and thought about what he could say.  He thought about whatever answer Shiro could give him, what answer could explain away the secret he’d kept.  Nothing excused it, did it?  Nothing would take away the damned ache that had settled in his heart when he’d seen the mark.  The same ache that he’d had since the day he’d met Shiro, only this time he understood why it was there.

“No.  We can’t.”

He left Shiro to tend his own wound and went back to the pilot’s seat to try to get his lion to see some sense. 


End file.
